A convincing scientific evidence for the Zika virus leading to microcephaly

In recent years, Brazil and other countries in the Americas frequently show microcephaly. According to studies on recombinant human proteins, the scientific community has confirmed that the Zika virus infection shows some association with the incidence of microcephaly, but they don't know how the virus impacts fetal brain development. German researchers have said that they have found the scientific evidence of Zika virus that causes microcephaly.

Researchers at the University of Cologne, Germany, and other institutions reported in a new issue of Cell-Stem Cells that they "reprogrammed" healthy human skin cells into cultured pluripotent stem cells to culture neural precursor cells. Neural precursor cells can differentiate a variety of nerve cells and can be described as the "starting point" of brain development.

Under specific experimental conditions, the researchers gathered many neural precursor cells into brain organs, that is, a few millimeters in size with three-dimensional structure of the brain tissue fragments. The process of embryonic brain simulates the early development and observes the virus effect of infection on embryonic brain development.

The results showed that Zika virus allows cells to involve in cell division - the central body shows failure so that nerve precursor cells prematurely differentiate into mature nerve cells. This "precocious" seems to be of no harm, but it will make a lot of nerve precursor cells no longer involve in brain organ growth into a complete brain process, leading to microcephaly.

Researchers said that they used Zika virus strains isolated from the small head deformed embryos in the experiment, and the experimental results provide a convincing scientific evidence for the Zika virus leading to microcephaly.

Zika virus spreads mainly through Aedes aegypti, but it is also sexually transmitted. People infected with Zika virus may show fever, rash, joint pain and other symptoms similar to dengue fever. The vast majority of infected patients are mild, but pregnant women need to be careful. Once infected, it may lead to fetal malformations. Flarebio provides you with good-quality recombinant proteins including recombinant TLR2 at competitive prices.